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From the Editor
By R.D. Hohenfeldt Managing Editor
Thank you good folks who have already subscribed to The Ozarks Chronicle, and I hope many more of you will do the same as we work on transforming our humble hill-country publication from a freebie to a paid-circulation magazine. We’re doing that for a number of reasons. One is the cost of distributing the magazine. The price of gasoline keeps inching up, so driving all over the countryside to put out stacks of The OC is a lot more expensive than it was when we started it in December 2004. Another reason is that it’s getting more difficult to find businesses that will let me put stacks out for customers to pick them up. There are so many free publications that some business owners are getting tired of seeing them stacked up, and they are banishing them from the premises. After we started The OC, a couple of other free publications also sprang up, and other existing publications from outside the area starting distributing in this region. That’s perfectly all right; I’m a free-market capitalist and a believer in the First Amendment. The problem is that there now are so many free publications that store owners think the stacks look tacky, so they are moving the free publications to the backs of their stores or refusing to allow any display at all. That’s the right of the store owners and managers, and I’m not complaining at all. I’m merely stating a fact, to explain why I’m trying to move to mailing rather than leaving stacks. On a related note, when I leave stacks of The OC out for people to pick up copies, I’m never sure if the copies are actually getting into the hands of readers. One night I was at a supermarket in the area, counting out copies for the stack I was leaving and chatting with a reader who stopped to tell me how much he enjoyed The OC. As we were talking, a young woman and her companion walked past, stopped at the stack of Chronicles I had placed on a rack and then bent over and picked up about half the stack. She must’ve picked up at least 100 copies, presumably to take home and use to wrap dishes for a move or something. I don’t know if that’s happening a lot, but in my nightmares, I’m seeing stacks of my precious Chronicles being picked up and used for packing material or fireplace kindling. It almost makes me cry to think of all those little copies of the Chronicle that were never read. I just want every copy of The OC to be read every month, so I’m trying to make sure every copy gets into somebody’s hands. Now, listen, I’m sorry; you’re my friends. I like you and I hate to charge you for it, because I know your cost of living and doing business is rising, too, just like mine. That’s why, right now, I’m keeping the subscription price to a bare minimum, and I’m just asking for a low $12 per year subscription fee to make sure you continue to get our monthly magazine that makes you feel good while you read it. Twelve
dollars really is not much, but it will help me send The
OC to you each month, working with the fine folks at the U.S. Postal
Service to deliver it right in your home or office. That small amount, a piddling $12, will mean you won’t have to rush to get to the stacks before everyone else does. It will mean you won’t have to hope that you just happen to find a copy. No, sir or ma’am, we’ll mail it to you. We’ll make sure it gets to your mailbox. Why, we’ll practically come to your house and put it in your hands. The only thing better would be if I called you on the phone and read it to you in my thick, hillbilly drawl. Lots of you are already subscribing. Most of the readers of The Ozarks Chronicle live and work right here in Phelps, Pulaski, Maries, Dent, Crawford and Texas counties, as well as in Gasconade, Laclede, Franklin and other southern Missouri counties. We’re
also mailing more each passing month to subscribers outside the great
state of With this issue we have subscribers in 13 states. Some of them are the recipients of gift subscriptions from relatives and friends who live here. Some of them are former residents of the Ozarks who, as one gentleman in a big city wrote when he renewed for another year, “enjoy The Ozarks Chronicle because it’s like getting a letter from home every month.” Some of them are people who are looking for a place to retire, found The Ozarks Chronicle’s website and decided to subscribe to see what life is like here. Some are looking for a place to raise a family, and like the potential retirees, found us on the world wide web and subscribed. It’s just thrilling as all get-out for us to mail our publication each month to readers right here in the Ozarks and from coast to coast and border to border. We encourage all of our readers, whether they are here in the Ozarks or in another state, to pass The OC along to someone else. As we’ve said many times, the best way to recycle The OC is to keep giving your well-read copy to someone else. Now,
let me make a suggestion: Fill out the order form and send it with $12
to me so you can be assured of receiving The
Chronicle in the mail each month. With a subscription, you’ll also
have a copy each month to give to a friend or send to a relative. It
will be like a letter from home. Thanks for reading. Thanks for subscribing. I’ll see you back here next month.--RDH
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